May232011

Greek blogger To Vytio (The Jerrycan) writes an elegiac post [el] on his return to Athens from a weekend trip, finding the city gripped in violence, fear, apathy and scary rhetoric. “Our mortal leap was the reaction to what happened in Athens against the immigrants. Lukewarm, blasé. With [right-wing extremists], journalists, politicians, coffee shop patrons and bus passengers gleefully, secretly - or even, not so secretly - contemplating mass extinction”

In
the early hours of May 12th a 21-year old Bangladeshi migrant was
stabbed to death in the Kato Patisia district of Athens. The victim was
lethally stabbed almost certainly by fascist thugs who have launched a
series of attacks in the centre of Athens following the murder of a
Greek man on Tuesday night, on the corner of Ipirou and Tritis
Septemvriou Street. Eye witnesses report that the murderers of the
21-year old man chased him around the neighbourhood and spoke Greek. On
Wednesday night alone fascist thugs roamed through a number of
districts of central Athens, injuring many migrants, 17 of them were
hospitalised.

In the past days, right-wing extremists in Athens, Greece have launched pogrom-like attacks on immigrants in the downtown Athens area. It began on May 10, 2011, one day after a 44-year old escorting his pregnant wife to the hospital was mugged and stabbed to death. There is no evidence as to the identity of the killers, but racist gangs have gone on something like vengeance spree on immigrants -or even foreign-looking Greeks- who they hold generally responsible for rising crime and unemployment in Greece.

A protest against the killing of the expectant father on May 10, in the same location where the mugging happened, drew a crowd of hundreds that eventually led to the attacks.

A man injured in racist attack after protest in Athens, 12 May 2011 - Photo by Epoca Libera, copyright Demotix

@constantnos: Alleged police and right-wing blogs have been warning for months about setting up militias. No one cared…

Some Twitter users pointed out core issues engendering violence in the city center. The demographics of entire housing blocks have changed, as right-wing groups have mounted more anti-immigrant campaigns.

November272010

Building
on the successes from the first Festival in October 2009, the 2011
Rolling Film Festival will once again highlight films made by and about
Roma around the world from 24th > 27th February 2011.

Rolling
Film Festival #2 is developing several new actions this year. Aside
from a four-day film festival in Prishtina, we will also organize a
school program and community screenings in 7 cities all around Kosovo
from 2nd > 10th March 2011, as well as a short film competition for Roma youth aiming to encourage Roma youth creativity.

Balkan Sunflowers and Romawood has begun the organization of Rolling Film Festival #2 and would like to inviteall the filmmakers who made a film about Roma and Roma filmmakers to submit their film to our festival.

We are currently looking for films - Documentaries, Short Films, Fiction,Experimental or/and Animation of any length. We are also looking for Video Spots and Campaign Videos (up to 2 min) with a strong message.

Last year's
experience sending the films by post to Kosovo was quite a challenge
for the filmmakers and the organizers; therefore this year the films will be sent to this adress:

Djordje Tadic for the Rolling Film Festival

Djure Strugara 11

25230 Kula,
Srbija/Serbia

We would kindly ask you to fill in the ENTRY FORM below and send it to us by the 15th of December along with a DVD of a film and/or the Video Spot and Campaign Video.